ASX starts the week negative, Woolworths plunges on class action proceedings
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More news: Australian share market plunged in early trade with mining stocks dragging the indices down. The benchmark ASX 200 fell 58.5 points or 0.67% to 8,838.8 at 10:53am AEDT with all 11 sectors opening in red.
Consumer staples (-1.5%) was the worst performing sector across the ASX 200, dragged down by Woolworths (-4.6%) on the back of ongoing class action proceedings.
Droneshield (-7.9%), Catalyst Metals (-7.2%), Mesoblast (-4%) and Eagers Automotive (-3.4%) were also heavily hit in the early trade.
Meanwhile, Ramelius Resources (+6.3%), James Hardie (+6%), Flight Centre (+5.1%) and Scentre Group (+4.1%) were the top performers across the ASX 200.
Australian shares to open lower after US stocks slide on AI bubble fears
The news: Australian shares are set to start lower after Wall Street indices fell sharply on Friday due to heightened concerns of an AI bubble.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: down 51 points to 8,659
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.51%, S&P 500 down 1.07% and Nasdaq down 1.69%.
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.21%, DAX down 0.45% and FTSE 100 down 0.56%
- Spot gold: up 0.42% to USD4,298 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.26% to USD61.12/bbl and US WTI down 0.28% to USD57.44/bbl
- AUD: down 0.23% at 66.50 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 1.84% to USD88,628.
The context: Tech majors Broadcom (-11.4%) and Oracle (-4.5%) led a selloff in tech stocks on Friday after both companies released softer-than-expected forecasts last week.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 1.9% while The S&P 500 lowered 1.1% after the index rose to a record close in the previous session.
The pullback came after the Federal Reserve's third straight interest rate cut spurred a rally on Wall Street last week. However, Fed policymakers aired strongly opposing views on Friday, stoking uncertainty for future rates cuts into 2026.
